“When we have a pandemic, there’s a breakdown of other systems,” Avila said. “All of those things could have impacted mortality. And there’s no real way to actually be able to measure where all those things occurred.”in times of crisis like a pandemic to check for additional mortality not included in official counts as well as from other less direct causes.
Avila said that while the report indicates some COVID-19 deaths may be have been missed or underreported, that number was likely not statistically significant.deadliest month of the last two years was the peak of the delta variant surge in the state: October 2021, when 741 deaths were reported — 324 more than expected.The excess death rate was about twice as high for men as it was for women. By race, Alaska Native people experienced the highest excess death rate.
Excess death data from 2022 was not yet available, but Avila said she was hopeful future years would see fewer deaths and lower mortality rates from COVID-19. There have been 170 COVID-19 deaths reported in Alaska so far this year.Annie Berman covers health care for the Anchorage Daily News. She's a fellow with Report for America, and is a graduate of the University of California Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.
Or directly. New study on COVID death undercounting covered here:
So excess deaths related to COVID were 0.0013% of Alaska's population. Terrifying. Happy to be one of the over 99.99% of survivors.